Bohemia

Tamsin Waley-Cohen and Huw Watkins transport us to pre-WWI Bohemia with a touching album of folk-inspired Slavic music. Antonín Dvořák’s Violin Sonata is in itself a rich well of emotions, from the wistful nostalgia of its opening movement to the idyllic, sunny optimism of its final movement. Josef Suk brings us back down to the ground, weaving strange, otherworldly elements and angular harmonies into a Romantic framework. And Leoš Janáček’s Violin Sonata, written at the outbreak of WWI, challenges us with its anger and despondency while still maintaining a core of crystalline beauty.